Preview: United v SC Braga

Manchester United welcomes Sporting Braga to Old Trafford on Tuesday, with the Reds chasing a win that should ease qualification into the Champions League knock out stages. United has been far from fluent in the competition to date, but victory over last season’s Europa League finalists will take Sir Alex Ferguson’s side to within a point of guaranteed progression. After last season’s pre-Christmas exit qualification alone will be an achievement.

However, Ferguson is set to rotate his resources for the visit of José Peseiro’s outfit, with Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra certain to miss out as United’s manager seeks to rest players ahead of next weekend’s fixture with Chelsea. Indeed, the 70-year-old Scot could make eight changes from the side that beat Stoke City 4-2 at the weekend, with Ashley Young, Anderson, Alexander Büttner and perhaps even Scott Wootton coming into the side.

Ferdinand will not feature, but United’s manager, Monday, backtracked on an implied threat to punish the 33-year-old defender for refusing to wear a Kick It Out t-shirt at the weekend. Blamed on a miscommunication, Ferguson says that Ferdinand will return for United’s Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge next Sunday.

Aside from the inevitable changes, Ferguson may reintroduce the diamond formation that brought the Reds victory over Cluj and Newcastle United in recent outings. It is a system, claims the Scot, that plays to his squad’s strengths, if not United’s history.

“If it turns out as a consistent team selection from me, playing a diamond, it is revolutionary because we’re going against our history,” admitted Ferguson on Monday

“I think the level of the game in England and Europe is such a high level now that making yourself unpredictable is going to be a strength. Teams will have to think if we are going to play two wide players or the diamond because we have players capable of doing both things.

“Players like Shinji Kagawa and Tom Cleverley can play very well in the type of matches the diamond offers. And of course in Nani, Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia, I’ve got really good wide players also. It is difficult – we have had some success playing with the diamond. The history of the club is always to play with wide players, particularly at Old Trafford, so I have a decision to make.”

Back into the side comes Shiji Kagawa, after the Japanese play-maker missed out on United’s victory over Stoke. The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder has failed to recreate the early season burst of form over the past month, with the Scot’s tactics and formation rarely aiding the £16 million acquisition. Ferguson is again likely to deploy the 23-year-old out of position against Braga.

“The initial reason for taking him was his ability to play behind the strikers,” said Ferguson “In the last couple of games he has played middle to right – not a problem for him because he still has the ability to create.”

Meanwhile, Young could feature after missing two months with a knee injury. The former Aston Villa winger has made just one start in the campaign, but will make the bench as a minimum against Peseiro’s side. However, there may once again be no room for Nani in Ferguson’s wingerless system. Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie could drop to the bench, with Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernández in line to start up front.

Despite the plethora of changes Ferguson insists he is taking the Portuguese opponents seriously after United was accused of complacency in last season’s campaign.

“We’ve kept players back who have been playing well – Cleverley, Kagawa – so I wouldn’t call that underestimating Braga,” added Ferguson.

“Braga are better away from home, [they] showed that beating Galatasaray [2-0]. It’s not easy going to Turkey. In the modern European game counter-attack is the issue, so tomorrow hopefully we can deal with that.”

Whatever the formation, history points to victory for Ferguson’s side. United has never lost at home to Portuguese opponents, although Peseiro’s side is unbeaten in seven matches away from home in European competition. It’s quite a turn-around for Os Arcebispos who lost 6-0 to Arsenal in the club’s first Champions League encounter. With more than a touch of coincidence the thrashing matched that handed down by Tottenham Hotspur FC in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup first round.

Yet, Braga also boasts a health record against English opponents, going five games unbeaten since defeat to Arsenal, including a 1-0 aggregate victory over Liverpool in the 2010/11 Europa League.

Peseiro, like compatriots José Mourinho and Andre Villas-Boas, enjoyed a limited playing career in the minor leagues before a low-key start as a manager. Begining his coaching career at Nacional, Peseiro took the Madeira club from the third division to the Primeira Liga in three seasons. For a season the 52-year-old worked under Carlos Quieroz at Real Madrid before returning to Portugal when the former United assistant manager was sacked by the Bernabeu hierarchy.

“We’ve got good players and a good team too, so we’re going to be trying to win,” said Peseiro, who will have been encouraged by United’s unspectacular wins over Cluj and Galatasaray.

“If we can’t win then a draw is a good result too. Sir Alex Ferguson praised Braga very highly only a few days ago, so he doesn’t underestimate us.”

Plenty of changes may say otherwise. Then again, Ferguson probably wouldn’t have it any other way.

86 comments

Worrying that Fergie thinks Kagawa is suited to the right side of a diamond. If we go with the diamond I’d be very surprised if Rooney didn’t start at the tip – personally I think when he’s on form he tends to look good anywhere, but many seem to think the success of the diamond is due to his presence at the tip. I like your formation although I think Welbeck will get a rest and (at least) one of Rooney and van Persie will play and we’ll also see (at least) one of Giggs and Nani. Given the no. of players who ‘need’ a game (Fletch-Ando-Clev-Kaga-Giggs-Nani-Chich) after the break, I think we might get something odd like Fletch at CB.

Raf-Fletch-Evans-Buttner
Ando-Clev
Nani-Kag-Giggs
Chich

I’d like to see us play a 2008 style 433 with Rooney-van Persie-Welbeck. They seem to building an impressive understanding already and they’re all capable of playing across a three without sacrificing width or defensive work rate. Only downside is that it lacks the pace for counter attacks.

worryingly some semicolons crept into the piece at totally random lines. Also i the first para: “After last season’s pre-Christmas exit that would an achievement. Instead it should be: would be an achievement.

I didn’t see Braga play against Gala or Cluj but i did watch them in that shite fest against Udinese in the qualifing round, they certainly are not Benfica. Absolutely no reason not get the 3 points, just so long as Fergie can get the lads to give half a shit.

signing kagawa was always gonna end up fucking up
this is taggart and phelan, to them youre either a winger or a centre mid or a striker, this is why taggart had never signed any of them bender attacking mid types before
tbf kagawa aint really shown anything to suggest hes much cop though

We’re less than 2 full months into the season and Kagawa has made a really strong start to life at United – 7 apps, 2 goals (and 1 assist) is nothing to be sniffed at

Though I rate the Bundesliga very highly (it’s arguably a technically superior league in many ways), there’s no denying that the Prem is a pretty different competition and some adjustment time was to be expected

You seem to also be ignoring how his position varied at Dortmund too – while his preference was for just behind the striker, he was similarly played out wide at times and deeper. Wherever he played, his movement took him all over the park anyway. It’s been just the same at United

While Kagawa has definitely been more effective in certain games over others, the line ‘kagawa aint really shown anything to suggest hes much cop though’ is just bizarre

I don’t really understand the lure of trolling on message boards to be honest… Whatever floats your boat I suppose

Dear sweet zombie Jebus, Carrick at centre back. It always disappoints me to see Carrick at the back, because he is far more effective in midfield.

Looking good besides that Kagawa / Cleverley / Fletcher / Rooney as a 4 is tasty, good movement, I think we’ll get the width we need from Buttner and Rafael.

Interesting to see how Hernandez plays with RvP, I think we’ll have Hernandez staying central, Rooney / RvP using space as and when, with Cleverley and Kagawa supporting behind. We’re obviously not going for a 0-0 tonight eh!

We’re a fun day out for anyone. Go to Old Trafford, you might as well attack the defence is worse than a fucking sunday league pub team. Good to see having a defensive midfielder is solving all our woes…

Just seen the goals
Hernandez is an option player, but his movement is fucking ace. Most of it is missed by the TV cameras. You have to actually go to a game to fully appreciate it.
Also, Carrick at centreback FFS. I thought Smalling was ready? And it looks like Buttner loses his man for both goals. I was doubtful as to whether he can actually defend.
Isn’t this the seventh/eighth game we’ve gone behind in n all? Chelsea is gonna be fucking chaos.

Not too worried about our defending long term. Almost every goal we have conceded this season has been down to individual errors rather than any systematic problems. Just feels like our players are a bit rusty and hopefully that will change now there are no international breaks for a while. All the problems seem very coachable. As the season has progressed the positioning of both full backs has improved and the back 4 have started to play more as a unit. Always finding new ways to fuck it up though. Would really help things if Fergie picked a no. 1.

Fergie talking about unpredictability as an asset for this team is worrying. It’s not all that hard for the opposition to adjust to playing a diamond or 4231/442. This might be behind the ‘keeper rotation as well. Probably trying to protect DDG from every team preparing to test him with crosses. It’s October, so it doesn’t matter that much, but the team will eventually need some stability to perform at its highest level. He clearly has no idea how to deal with the massive imbalance in favour of attacking players in the squad and he hasn’t been helped by the injuries to defensive players.

I think Ferguson is in something of a cleft stick. He is oft quoted as saying that, basically,any team can win the Premier League-the hard part is retaining it.My theory is that (1) Ferguson is going to retire at the end of this season, hence the lack of major signings (except RVP who cannot be seen as “long term”). There will be a large amount of money for the new manager to rebuild the squad.(2) The main focus of this season is to stop City retaining the league, not for us to win it.Also I think as long as we get to the next stage of the Champions League that will be enough for the club-which of the major European clubs would we beat anyway? Stupid ideas? Maybe,but look how focused Ferguson was about knocking Liverpool off their “perch”.
With regard to Hernandez, always had the ability to score but his first touch outside the box and his link up play were atrocious at times in past seasons. Judging from his performance last night these aspects of his game have improved considerably.

Great a manager as he is, Fergie is a tactical mess sometimes. Thankfully the Kagawa injury forced him to revert to the tried and tested otherwise we would easily have conceded again.
I thought the reason for amassing a great squad of attacking players was to be keep people fresh and provide options for each game – not just to shove them all in together and hope for the best. If that means Rooney and RVP as your best threat then so be it.
I’d personally love to see Kagawa behind Hernandez in a game, his quick brain and great movement ahead could be potent.

The thing about playing Welbeck on the wing… with Rooney and Van Percie in the squad, the only way he’s going to see any action is out of his preferred position.

“Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and ching’ tu madre! Come out from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you.”

I like Welbeck on the wing. He can’t finish yet, so theoretically going to waste fewer chances on the wing. He is also fast and willing to help out defensively. Only downside is we tend to lose some width as he always likes to be close to other players. Finally his competition is Young, Nani and Giggs rather than Rooney, van Persie, Hernandez, Kagawa.

Commenter said:
I’d personally love to see Kagawa behind Hernandez in a game, his quick brain and great movement ahead could be potent.

I agree – that with two out and out wingers would be a perfect counter attacking set-up.

Why play Welbeck in the wing at all? He’s just useless on the left wing – Nani, Kagawa and even Buttner would be better options up there. Rooney and Van Persie can play there too but they must not be shunted out wide.

Commenter said:
Great a manager as he is, Fergie is a tactical mess sometimes. Thankfully the Kagawa injury forced him to revert to the tried and tested otherwise we would easily have conceded again.
I thought the reason for amassing a great squad of attacking players was to be keep people fresh and provide options for each game – not just to shove them all in together and hope for the best. If that means Rooney and RVP as your best threat then so be it.
I’d personally love to see Kagawa behind Hernandez in a game, his quick brain and great movement ahead could be potent.

Good point but it’ll never happen. Rooney and RVP should have been rested for this game – that shows how much faith Fergie’s got in his other strikers for him to risk losing out on the playoffs again.

Fergie meddles a lot these days with formation and personnel: he seems simultaneously wedded to his own tactical past and the notion that to compete with City and Chelsea, United have to play the same system. Kagawa will find out in time without decent cover behind him in United’s more traditional (and often more effective) 4-4-2, he’s surplus; or indeed, in a 4-3-3 he’s hugging the touchline to make up for lack of width. A potentially fantastic player signed on the same premise as fantasy football selection.

our options on the left are crap, young is one of the worst players weve got, nani is being a cunt and better on the right anyway, giggsy is giggsy, nothing wrong with giving welbeck games on the wing to get him in the side as much as possible, same for jones at right back last season

Will @ 12:14: ” Kagawa will find out in time without decent cover behind him in United’s more traditional (and often more effective) 4-4-2, he’s surplus; or indeed, in a 4-3-3 he’s hugging the touchline to make up for lack of width.”

Maybe – maybe not. A lot will depend on how SAF decides to use his attacking quartet – in a “winger-less” 4-2-3-1 or some version of the traditional 4-4-2. KagawaBunga is a talent who would be best-served as the deep-lying guy in the 4-2-3-1 BUT it looks like he’d have to bump TheWayneBoy from that role to one of the “inside forward” positions behind Chicharito (?) or RVP (?).

What’s just discouraging is that SAF is “tinkering” rather than making a commitment to a new style of play featuring his four best attacking players and then figuring out whether he wants a midfield to mesh with them or to sit back and protect the back four.

The first scenario would be some version of Anderson/Cleverley or DarrenFletcherinho (or even AV7, who plays central midfield for Ecuador) while the second is Michael Carrick and TheGingerNinja. Either of these options has an up-side AND a down-side so it’s going to be a gamble to quit tinkering and make a commitment.

Obviously, I’d like to see more forwards-integration but that might just have to wait for the return to fitness of CaptainVidic/BigManSmalling/MrJones so that Rio can be phased out and a quicker central defence can be employed.

Isla and James Rodriguez are two very talented young left-sided players, so I hope there’s some substance to the rumours that we’re looking at them. It’s fucking ridiculous that we have become a really one-note down the wings attacking side, but aren’t even good on both wings! We basically score from crosses in the from the right, or maybe from the left on a corner.

We got Kagawa presumably to get back to having some sort of creative attacking potential through the middle. Kagawa is a terrific player. He was one of the stars of Borussia Dortmund, and I think it ought to be plain to everybody now that over the past 2-3 seasons Borussia Dortmund has been a much better team than ours. They just beat Real and they battered City and ought to have beaten them — if we’d met them at any time over the past few seasons, it would have been an embarrassment.

But to be honest I think the most important signing we could make right now would be to get Carlos Quiroz (forgot how to spell his name) or someone like him back in to run things underneath Fergie. Quiroz was the perfect deputy for Fergie, and he’d be really good at getting this team playing more cohesively and with better purpose and organization. Looking back, you kind of feel like Fergie said “I want to play Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez/Saha all at the same time”, and Quiroz figured out how to let that happen without the midfield and defense becoming a shambles.

Every time I see us play these days, I think more and more than David Moyes might be a massive success replacing Fergie.